In response to Jim Devine:
I haven't read his book either and can go only on the reviews I have read.
I think you are misinterpreting him. To be pithy, his point is not that the
poor in the Third World should be given property rights in public lands, but
that they should be given property rights in the land that they already
possess. In other words, the great mass of the poor live in homes and
operate businesses illegally or are simply beyond the laws and legal
protection of their extremely bureaucratic countries. Therefore, simple
financing devices that we take for granted, such as mortgages and other
types of secured financing, are unavailable to the poor because they do not
have legal title to their possessions. Therefore, they are unable to
leverage their possessions into greater wealth. De Soto, in other words,
emphasizes the lack of a rational and functioning legal system of contract
and property rights as the impediment to the poor.
David Shemano
